- A scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Memory of the Camps.”
In 1945 renown movie director, Alfred Hitchcock was asked to produce a film that would document the horrors of the Holocaust. That movie proved so potent, so damning that the allies suppressed the film’s release. At the time, the victorious allies viewed Stalin’s Soviet Union as the next great threat to freedom and world peace and were determined to rebuild a German nation that would ally itself with the west. Ongoing damnation of the German people in the post-war era was viewed as counterintuitive.
According to the Independent, Hitchcock’s documentary on the Holocaust was mothballed to the Imperial War Museum, much like the fictional Ark of the Covenant was at the conclusion of Steven Spielberg’s, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Upon discovering Hitchcock’s video record of the worst genocide in human history in a number of rusty video cans in the 1980’s, the Imperial War Museum painstakingly restored the film which has now finally been released for all to see.
(Warning: This film includes footage and descriptions of the Holocaust that may prove very distressing for some.)
Tent of Abraham 
What evil insane people could do this to another human. I have read and seen short documentaries but never anything as graphic as this. It makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I cant hate the German people but those that voted that monster Hitler into power hold some responsibility.. So much i am thinking ,so much i could say..
R.I.P THOSE THAT WERE MURDERED R.I.P THOSE THAT SURVIVED.
NEVER LET THIS BE FORGOTTEN OR HAPPEN AGAIN.
You have never actually read any history of the events leading up to WWII have you ? Hitler was seen as a savior by many,many German people at the time. These were not “monsters” that put Hitler in power , they were starving, bankrupted , and afraid of losing their national identity. President Wilson warned that the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI would lead to another great war as it heaped the entire allied cost of the war onto the German people. Hitler lost his damn mind AFTER coming into power as leader of Germany. As to your comment about this never being forgotten or happen again … where have you and the mainstream media been for DECADES of horrific genocide in Africa ? As a nation, we have always been blind to the horrors befalling non-anglo nations/peoples. (just ask the Lakota, Apache, Cherokee, and ALL the other Native American peoples) I’m sure you meant well, and yes , there were monsters at large bent on evil running the many POW camps and worse still in the ” Final Solution” extermination camps. The common people of Germany could not of imagined that Hitler could be possible of such crimes against humanity. Oh , and just an FYI, look up the list of Presidential Executive orders created in the U.S. since F.D.R. was in office , and then please note that Hundreds of “internment” or “relocation” camps have been built all across our country here is just 1 of many links http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm were we “monsters” electing our presidents ? but what do you think these camps are for if not us ? ” … And then they came for me , but there was no one left to speak out for me … ” Please , please follow up on this and tell your friends and family, BE AWARE of what is really going on here and now.
Sorry, but the nazi extermination of jews in Europe was not “the worst genocide in human history”, at least if we consider the number of people slaughtered. Many more millions were exterminated in the conquest of America and the slavering of African people by European “entrepeneurs” since the 16th Century…
Spoken like a person who cognitively and emotionaly “needs” to believe that a white ethnic group with the remarkable history of the Jewish people can’t possibly be the ultimate victims of human hate. Thank you for your comment Carlos.
Carlos makes an empirical claim and you counter by creating an elaborate ad hominem characterisation of him. That is very disrespectful to Carlos. There are constructive ways of engaging with these horrible aspects of history, but you clearly do not want to. Your “Holocaust” exceptionalism is showing. The gas chambers of Birkenau may have been exceptional, but most Jews did not die there. They died of starvation, disease and mass shootings just like the 20 million or so civilian Slavs who died from German genocide. You probably don’t understand what genocide actually means, even though you think you do, so I would recommend that you read the relevant chapter of Lemkin’s Axis Rule in Occupied Europe which is available online here: http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/AxisRule1944-1.htm
Digby, your suggestion than my response to Carlos was in someway ad hominem had me reread it a number of times in search of words that might be deemed “emotional and not logical.” I plead guilty, not to intentionally writing ad hominem verbiage but frankly being at a loss these days when so many of us write with much passion to distinguish between words that do not advance an argument and words that only express a person’s anger or disdain.
That said, I must tell you that as a liberal Zionist I’m all to aware of the double standard that so many people of good will towards human rights apply to the struggles taking place between Palestinians and Israelis. As Peter Breitbart and others who are smarter and more eloquent than I have pointed out, too often when there political confrontations between Westerner’s of European decent and people who are currently or can trace their racial or ethnic lineage to a third world country, there is almost knee-jerk approval of non-white, non westerners position regardless of their own prejudices and inhumanity. I don’t deny or challenge how white colonialists have historically oppressed and mistreated Africans, Latinos and other non-white racial/ethnic groups. But when someone cannot resist brining up the oppression of other groups in the comment section of article/story about the German genocide of the Jewish people, I have to wonder why they feel necessity to passively or directly discount such tragedy in the cause of promoting the suffering of their own people as having been worse. (Breitbart article that is worth reading: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/17/the-american-studies-association-is-really-boycotting-israel-s-existence.html )
This reply is for Digby.
As I mention previously in my replies the Nazis, consciously, with malice of forethought set out to rid Europe of the “Jewish Problem.” Even before WW2 began, taking the 1933 Enabling Act or even the publication of Mein Kampf in 1925 Hitler with all too much active or passive collaboration of Germany deprived Jews of their human rights, property, freedoms and ultimately their lives.
Yes 20 million Russians, I thought it was 30 million were slaughtered too mainly from battlefield actions and yes mainly prisoners of war too were systematically starved to death.
Also FYI in October 1938 homosexuals, the mentally ill, physically impaired, and Downs Syndrome people were liquidated by carbon monoxide poisoning in pre-built chambers which also is not widely known.
It is the pre-planned expunging of an identical group over such a long time frame which exceeds my English to describe revulsion.
Do you also condemn the black slave traders in West Africa for starting the trade well before Europeans got involved and continued it after the British banned it in 1801 and 1834.
Do you also thank especially the British from the start of those times onwards for sending its navy worldwide to stop the continuing Arab/black African slave trade which still goes on today?
Also as a Hispanic I presume, are you going to apologise for the the butchering and enslavement of the South American indigenous peoples like Aztecs and Incas?
Personally David, I don’t owe any apologies to anyone in regard to slavery and social oppression. As a gay Jewish man and social worker, I’ve dedicated my life to helping others and building a better world (tikun olam). In my guilty of some profound offense for publishing a story and movie that highlights the Holocaust? With all due respect, if you think I am, than it is you and not me who is guilty of misusing victimhood and to discount the suffering of groups other than your own.
Mitchell I do not seem able to reply to you directly. If you read my profile I am a libertarian and distrustful of government. I was really answering Carlos’ reasonable point about the European slave trade. I think it is quite disingenuous to equate the slave trade with the holocaust, disgusting as it was.
As I mention Britain did its level best to make amends in the 19th century and British Prime Minister Tony Blair rightly said in 2006 he was “profoundly shameful” and expressed his “deep sorrow” at Britain’s involvement.
Reinhard Heydrich’s Chairmanship of a meeting on the 20th January 1942 where the Nazi’s designed the “Final Solution” remains the epitome of the depths of depravity the human can descend into.
For the sake of clarity my deepest sympathies are with anyone who is the victim of an overbearing state and especially for those murdered for the sake of their religion.
Mitchell, I believe that David’s reply was to Carlos and not to you.
http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2012/10/dictator_death_tolls_who_killed_the_most_people.html
How do you manage to bring black people into this argument, these are two separate issues. You could also ask how advanced would the tribes in Africa be now without the European influence.
Watch. Learn. Prevent.
Spoken like a person who cognitively and emotionaly “needs” to believe that a black ethnic group with the remarkable history of the African people can’t possibly be the ultimate victims of human hate. Thank you for your comment Mitchell
.
And my question to you Laura is, why do we have to play the game, “who is the ultimate victim of human cruelty?” If feeling like you are a part of the “tribe” that is the ultimate victim of human cruelty helps you to hold your head a little higher, GO FOR IT!
So my question to you Mitchell is,why do we need views on past, cause present shows us enough of examples of the “victim of human cruelty”? I think, this film isn’t necessary!
Those who close a blind eye to the past are destined to repeat it Chris.
There was no black history remarkable or otherwise of any note before the Europeans
Having had my maternal grandparents and their nine-year old son (who would have been my uncle) murdered by the Nazis at Sobibor, I can’t bear to watch these documentaries. But I applaud you for bringing this to the public, lest future generations ever forget this insanity.
More than gruesome – but neccessary to show to a world where people are forgetting or worse, denying, what happened: the industrially planned mass murder of human beings, Jews, gypsies, gay people, everyone the nazi’s considered ‘Untermenschen’. (Inferior humans.)
TRAGICALLY… there has never been a moment in recorded human history where there wasn’t war/conflict… always a part of …the most intelligent species, resulting in the pain, suffering, anguish, despair of so many. ALL life is precious. what makes the death of so many Jews so distinct is …. almost half of all Jews in the world were lost. and still…..in spite of it all, before and since…have given so much… disproportionally!
The most destructive force of nature is human nature, because it can chose. Do we even have the capacity to stop that?!
FOR A KINDER, SAFER, HEALTHIER AND MORE JUST WORLD>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It doesnt even matter at this point the ethinicity of those involved as a whole. All that matters is that there is no entitiy so powerful that it can do this ever again. To anyone. People need to quit playing the blame game and trying to decide who the victims are and who needs more pity now and realize this has happened over and over in this world and it just needs to STOP happening at all. Have we not figured it out by now?
Reply to Mitchell, January 12, 2014, 1:49 PM. I know a lot of blind eyes, knowing the past, They`re all goinig to meet in Sotschi, Brasilia, Katar and so on … as 1936
The significant question and significant point here, for the event documented in this film and all others of its ilk, is, Why? Why would we supposedly sane folk behave this way? What is making us capable of doing this, while at the same time making us capable of kindness? Is our caring for each other not really our true nature, but just a convenient self-delusion, or is it our heartlessness that is some kind of collective aberration? These questions have never been directly or pragmatically addressed by any discipline or institution, and the point of it all still looms over the fate of the the human race..
Thank you for sharing this powerful piece with the world. As a Holocaust education and Holocaust Literature scholar, I know far too well how easily people wanted to forget and how much denial currently exists. Sadly this is evident among some of the posts here. Suffering is not to be judged. No one’s suffering is more valid or more intense than another. However, from the perspective of governmental policy, systematic design, intention, and motivation: then the Holocaust or Shoah, is the worst human case of genocide in modern history because in no other time has a government funded a project intended on anhialating an entire people without the foundational goal of monetary or geographic gain. Because although there was the acquisition of Jewish money, property and lands, that was a brownie point not the reason for the attacks on the Jewish population. Were there other victims…yes, but while not all victims were Jewish, all jews were victims. This is an important concept to remember when treading into the dangerous waters of comparison: not all Africans became slaves, not all Native Americans were displaced and put on reservations, and the list goes on. But all Jews of Europe, regardless of country were intended to be killed. Hitler was not alone in his attack, he had help from eager anti-Semites and apathetic bystanders alike.
W.E. Cox, you ask why? How? Fear. Scapegoating. People are afraid of loss…loss of income, food, work, status, home, car, self. If the powers-that-be tell you that a particular group is responsible for your suffering and that in order to get back to happier times all you have to do is get rid of them, well, that’s what they’ll do.
They will think you (powers that be) are the wise and powerful leader they have been waiting for, they will all rally behind you, and you will unify them against their common enemy so as to restore their prosperous and happy lives. You will promise them whatever they want to hear so you can achieve the power you crave to get rid of those you dislike or fear. You will feed into their insecurities, their ignorance (in the true meaning of the word) of the targeted victims, their suffering, you will show them propaganda meant to alarm and incite panic and anger, you will lie to them and they will believe it, because they don’t know better, and because they trust and believe in you…blindly. And even when shown that their fears are in error, and they are being mislead, they won’t hear it…because they’ve already been indoctrinated. They will turn their faces from the truth, turn a deaf ear and a blind eye, because admitting the truth and realizing they were wrong would be even more difficult and guilt ridden so they continue to deny and believe.
The other reason is because of fear of retribution from the ruling powers…if they don’t go along with it they will die along with the others.
This is how genocide happens without being stopped…until it’s so big that people on the outside can see it and respond. Whether it’s the holocaust which was a well planned, managed and carefully orchestrated destruction of an entire race along with gypsies, gays and other targeted groups, or African, Native American/Indian, Asian, or whatever group you pick…. .or if it’s the less well calculated, but equally vicious murder of innocents in a war torn nation where ruling powers collide and they use the people as pawns in their fight for power….where they go into peoples homes, murder parents and children in front of each other, kidnap, rape, and torture families who are then forced to run to makeshift refugee camps for safety… it’s all the same.
Sad world we live in.
We are seeing the reemergence of the Nazis right in front of our eyes. It is all about control. Totalitarian ambitions are continued by the UN- largely established by Socialists. The Nazis were/are Socialists.Ever notice that most of the rebukes from the UN are toward Israel? Hello, the Palestinians lob rockets in to Israel constantly-this is normally grounds for war.
As for the Holocaust, my parents went through the Holocaust and I have heard their accounts from decades before Holocaust denial even started! ANY group that has in its “evidence” that the Holocaust did not happen is peddling mistruths that undermine their ENTIRE argument. Muslims are in the business of Holocaust denial, which thus implies Islam itself leaves much to be desired. If they peddle this lie, what other aspects of Islam are lies. Taquiyya-the sanctioned use of lies to further the cause. Many if not all the of the so-called atrocities by Israel are actually staged fakes. The existence of even one staged fake implies there are more.
high treason, the problem is NOT with “evidence” that the holocaust DIDN’T happen,
it’s the total lack of evidence that it DID happen,I am referring to a grand plan of murder employing gas chambers as the means.
this being the basis of most “deniers” unbelief.
Thanks for sharing
Considering this film sequence is only one of many regarding the conditions and philosophies imposed by the Nazi Party on select of their residents and other victims of their oppression, I see no logic in comparing these events to other genocidal conditions which took place in other times of our history….. this was slavery with intent to eliminate a population and religion, as opposed to slavery in quest of wealth…… I realize the distinction will be moot with some, but it exists, none the less!
Just a few thoughts:
– People who are writing about “another genocides”: you don’t really care of other genocides nor Indians, Afrikans or so but diminish the genocide against the Jewish people.
If you writing about number and playing with memory of the victims don’t forget to mention the tzunami disaster in which 300.000 people died in couple of hours.
– We do really regret other genocides, more than many other people but the crime that was committed 70 years ago in the heart of Europe with active support of other people and not only Germans so that was a unique crime against the Jewish people with only one goal: to eradicate them from the Earth. Not because starvation or actions of war, not because of conquering an other landscape or wars between people but again: in order to extreminate all of us. If you don’t understand this you are dumb or evil.
Thanks! Stumble a post of the undersigned on the history of this film. Comments interesting also. Unfortunately it is all written in Italian. Sorry.
http://visionandonellastoria.net/2013/01/12/la-memoria-dei-campi-the-memory-of-the-camps/
I find it fascinating how everyone wants to make an argument for an argument. Any atrocity rather than be parsed or compared to other atrocities is not at all progressive.
Rather than spin all our wheels on denying, minimizing or comparing atrocities it would be beneficial, since no one has disagreed that the events that took place were atrocities to get on the same page and collectively be a force to help the world become a better place. It wont be one because we argue from each of our sides. One person who I cared for once said, “there are two sides to every story and i am interested in neither”. I read all the opinions submitted that comments and characterizes on the tragic events and I can tell you that being right is not about being intellectual. Being right is not about agreeing and then saying “BUT”..Being right is doing something about any atrocity occurring now in the world or having the past documented so as not to repeat itself.The movie about the Holocaust or any other tragic event for that matter, is doing something about it and all of us should have the same commitment to argue our causes as has Mitchell Gilbert. His work is to footprint an incredibly savage event that recently occurred in our history. If we really care, our goal should be to weed out the intolerance and ignorance that allows people like Hitler to lead and those many weak enough to follow..We do not all have to believe in the same causes, we just have to share the same values.Think me sanctimonious then I will have said nothing. .
I would really appreciate being able to watch this film, is there any place I can see it in full? Thanks